In a surprise to no one, Lance Mackey, who has won the race four times (2007-10), is the leader nearing the midpoint of the 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Mackey was the first musher to pull into the checkpoint in Ophir, Alaska. Mackey arrived around 5:30 a.m. PST Wednesday and rested for 15 minutes before heading back out on the trail. Jake Berkowitz arrived in Ophir second and Nicolas Petit third. PHOTOS: Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race The lead mushers are a little over 400 miles into the race.

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race began on Sunday in Alaska, with 65 teams making their way through punishing wilderness toward the finish line in Nome on Alaska's western coast 1,000 miles away. Among the competitors were defending champion Dallas Seavey and four-time winners Lance Mackey, Jeff King and Martin Buser. “I love running the dogs, working with the dogs,” said Cindy Gallea, of Wykoff, Minn., whose best finish among 10 Iditarods was 33rd. “I love being in Alaska, being around the beauty.” PHOTOS: Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race The Iditarod winner gets a new truck and $50,400.

On what is close to a record pace as the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race entered its second week, Jeff King was first into Eagle Island. King was followed by DeeDee Jonrowe, Rick Mackey and Susan Butcher.

A three-time musher in the Iditarod dog sled race has been found guilty of animal cruelty after officers found some of his dogs dehydrated and so emaciated that their spines and hip bones were visible under their skin. A judge fined David Straub $300 for violating Matanuska-Susitna Borough code. The borough north of Anchorage had previously withdrawn the license that allowed him to keep more than four dogs.

Aside from wild moose trying to stomp the dogs and the risks of plunging into the icy ocean or river in inky darkness, the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is a jaunt in a park. Except this is Mother Nature's Most Extreme Park, not the kind of meadows where most dog lovers take their Rovers to run around. Mushers don't scoop up the poop, fling Frisbees or throw sticks to fetch.

Mitch Seavey won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in nine days, 12 hours, 20 minutes and 22 seconds on Tuesday night, his 11th run on the 1,100-mile route from Anchorage to Nome. Seavey, 43, crossed the finish line just before 10:30 p.m. His previous best finish was fourth in 1998. "I'm sort of in disbelief," Seavey said. "I think everybody's happy to have an Alaskan boy win the Iditarod."

Sixty-four dog teams pushed off Monday on the frozen Chena River, launching the 31st Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race along a new route drawn up because of Alaska's unusually warm winter. Mushers and dogs lining up for the "restart" were enjoying snow, something they didn't have for Saturday's ceremonial start in Anchorage. Amid the din of barking dogs, several thousand fans turned out to witness the Iditarod's first appearance in Fairbanks.

A week before today's start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, officials redrew the 1,100-mile route from Anchorage to Nome in search of what is usually everywhere this time of year in Alaska: snow. Past races have pitted mushers and their dogs against blizzards and bitter cold. It took the balmiest February on record to redraw the Iditarod for the first time in its 31-year history.

Randy Chappel hadn't planned on leaving a career as an investment manager in Arlington, Texas, to run a team of sled dogs in Alaska's most famous race. Blame it on a tourist attraction. Chappel and his wife were vacationing in Canada four years ago when D'Ann Chappel learned about three-hour mushing excursions. Riding in a sled driven by an experienced musher was something that the couple could never experience at home, where light snow might fall every other year or so.

As the leaders neared the end of the 21st Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race last week, columnist Mike Doogan of the Anchorage Daily News wrote: "Right now, ruthless mushers are forcing our non-human animal friends to pull heavy loads over treacherous trails, all in the name of so-called sport. Gaia (the Greek earth goddess) only knows how many of our canine companions will be killed before the last of the sledding species reaches Nome."